North Middlesex girls beat Leominster, snap skid

LEOMINSTER -- Last week, North Middlesex Regional girls' basketball coach Pat Murphy saw his team play and lose two close games against Midland League A powers Algonquin and Wachusett.

But North Middlesex finally found that winning formula once again Thursday night, as junior center Mackensey Farina dominated in the low post with 19 points, 14 rebounds and six second-half blocks to lead her team to a 62-54 victory over Leominster High.

"This wasn't in the must-win category, but it was close," Murphy said. "I told them (Wednesday) in practice that the window is starting to close on us.

"Coming in here and winning, I'm ecstatic."

The Patriots entered with a three-game losing streak, but were still confident they could win on the road against the Blue Devils.

"Wachusett and Algonquin are the two best teams in our league," Farina said. "We knew that if we could play with them, then we could play with anybody."

With the win, North Middlesex got back to .500 at 6-6 overall and 2-3 in the league, while Leominster fell to 5-8 and 2-3.

"We've lost a few games in a row, but this win will boost up our confidence a ton," Farina said. "It's really nice because we wanted to beat this team so bad because we should have beat Shrewsbury (a 53-36 loss on Tuesday), so this game really got us going."

Farina certainly got her team going in the third quarter. The 5-foot-11 center was an intimidator in the paint, swatting away five shots to bolster the Patriots' defensive unit.

Advertisement

"Her defensive presence is going to be there all the time," Murphy said. "She's that kind of player, when she's on -- like she was tonight -- she's a huge difference-maker for us."

With Leominster staked to a 36-35 lead after junior guard Quinn O'Connell (17 points) knocked down a 3-pointer, the Patriots pumped the ball into the post and Farina hit back-to-back shots for a 39-36 advantage.

Leominster got even at 39-39 on senior guard Betsy McNiff's 3-ball, but North Middlesex ended the quarter on an 8-2 run, highlighted by a jumper and layup by senior guard Kim Morgan (10 points).

In the fourth quarter, North Middlesex went up 52-43 after Farina was doubled in the low blocks and kicked the ball out to Maddie Balassie (11 points), who knocked down a baseline jumper.

"Gina (Dedo) did a good job on (Farina) in the first half, but it is hard to cover a person that tall," O'Connell said. "We would try to help, but they would just kick the ball back out and they'd get second shots."

Free-throw shooting was also huge for North Middlesex, as Ashley Rosko scored all nine of her points from the charity stripe. She was 9 of 12 from the line in the second half.

"We got to the line," said Murphy, when asked what were some keys to the game. "We made foul shots. Rosko shot well and that was probably her best game of the year tonight. I think that was the difference."

It was a solid all-around first half for both teams. In the first 16 minutes, there were eight lead changes and six ties.

Farina was an absolute monster in the first half, recording a double-double of 11 points and 12 rebounds.

But Leominster's guards came to play, too. McNiff (game-high 21 points, four 3-pointers) buried three first-half treys for 10 points, while O'Connell had nine points.

McNiff's third trey of the half and O'Connell's strong drive in the lane gave the hosts a 27-23 lead, but North Middlesex scored the final five points to claim a 28-27 lead at the half.

Leominster isn't panicking quite yet, but it knows it needs to play much better if it expects to earn a tournament berth.

"We need to wake up," McNiff said. "We have some big league games coming up, but we need to work hard. I think we can beat them and definitely make the tournament."

Leominster senior guard Katarina Romano turned in a nice effort with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sentinel and Enterprise. So keep it civil.